LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – The Japanese can now officially dance the night away without a curfew. Since 1948, dancing at any time past midnight in Japan has been illegal. But those who want to shake their groove things can now rejoice. The Japanese government is cutting back on the crazy…
ALEX QUEJADO WRITES — “Cons,” or fan conventions, are commonplace in today’s world. They are held for fans of a particular medium, such as comic books or anime. Video game conventions in particular receive extensive media coverage. Game publishers release first-look footage of their upcoming projects at major gaming conventions like…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — From the moment you open Tumblr, 4chan, or Reddit, you’re laughing up a storm. We’re lucky that this is all in English for the American audience, but Vietnam isn’t far behind with their own growing chuckle site. The popular start-up site HaiVL was allegedly acquired by…
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – Media lesson learned in Taiwan this week: don’t let tainted cooking oil taint your responsibility in reporting. In light of recent reports on the sale of bad cooking oil in Taiwan, the media had a frenzy covering this controversy, including speculation causing an increase in worry for the…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES: China’s influence over outside media outlets is increasing in countries like Australia, analysts report. This ‘soft power’ approach is China’s way of keeping in touch with one million Chinese Australians while censoring what is included in the Chinese language news sources and favoring state-generated content. John Fitzgerald,…
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Japan was shaken on September 27 when Mt. Ontake erupted, resulting in the death of 47 hikers. Located 125 miles west of Tokyo, the ominous volcano’s explosion also injured 70 other hikers who sustained bruises, cuts, and broken bones after being pelted by flying rocks and other debris.…
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES — The media in Taiwan has been buzzing these past weeks, so here’s a quick rundown starting with Hong Kong. Although the media focuses on the events unfolding in Hong Kong, many sources such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), New Tang Dynasty television (NTD), and BBC, reported on…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — Vietnam treating their journalists poorly isn’t even a punchline anymore. In the past year, we’ve seen them wage war against journalists and bloggers, detaining, silencing, and playing jail tetris with them. It’s about time someone went undercover. Shawn W. Crispin from the Committee to Protect Journalists…
ARACELI PALAFOX WRITES- In September, there was a turn in media in Cambodia when Cambodia’s Center for Independent Media (CCIM) applied for radio and television licenses. If granted, CCIM would operate it’s Voice of Democracy (VOD) program through the Ministry of Information. VOD was established in 2003 under Cambodia’s Center for Human…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — The next generation console war is heating up in the West as Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One are neck and neck. In the East, however, Sony has had Microsoft on the ropes. According to Arcade Sushi, the Xbox One launched in Japan in September and was…
JEREMIAH FAJARDO WRITES – From potato salad to Oscar nominated films, the popular crowd-funding site Kickstarter has been at the forefront of rethinking project funding. Surprisingly, some of the most successful campaigns have come from Japan’s risk-averse entertainment industry. The time for change has come and it’s in the hands…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – To thwart digital pirates, the Australian government has put forward a plan to keep websites from hosting copyrighted material. Aussie creative types and the media say ‘Bravo’. The Media, Entertainment, and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a union representing artists, film makers, journalists and other creators, say they…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES—No one, it seems, can escape the far-reaching grasp of the Internet. Vietnamese authorities thought they could lock away dissidents, but their fingers keep tapping and a scene emerges that looks eerily similar to African Americans during the 1960s Civil Rights era. According to TuoiTreNews, it’s now apparent that prisoners have…
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Retracting a story is a bold move in the field of journalism and tends to suggest a lack of research. On August 5, The Asahi Shinbun decided to retract not one story, but all stories that included a quote made by a Japanese man who claimed…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — Let’s face it; as someone who falls in the 13-25 age range, some of the only ways I stay informed about world events is through the Facebook trending tags and reblogs on Tumblr. A Vietnamese news venue has taken notice and approached the problem with a…
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – When a grudge is held between two countries, what sort of action is considered “crossing the line?” On July 3, the Chinese paper The Chongqing Youth News published a map of Japan with cartoony drawings of atomic mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki along with a…
